Are you wondering if you should hire an Operations Manager? Here are 5 tell-tale signs that it may be time for you to add an Operations Manager to your team.

1. Your business is growing while your free time is shrinking.

I’m betting you started your business to create more freedom in your life. Freedom of time, money, and choice. Let me ask you, as your business grows, are you working more or less time? If you are on the ‘working more time’ side of things, you certainly aren’t alone… I can’t count how many times I’ve talked to business owners who are working more hours in their own business than they ever did in their ‘old job.’ 

However, it doesn’t have to be this way. As a business owner, you have the freedom to make changes in your business, including hiring the right help to get stuff off your plate. This is exactly what an Operations Manager does. Our focus is to free up the business owner (you!) so that you can focus your time and energy on the things that only YOU can do in your business.

2. You have to turn away opportunities because you are so busy!

Turning away opportunity is an unfortunate by-product of the first point. Are you so busy that you can’t take advantage of the opportunities that are coming your way? Do you ever find yourself saying, “I would love to do X and know it would be a great new offer, but I simply don’t have the time for it right now?”  

Not only can an Operations Manager help free up your own time to explore these opportunities, but they can also work on bringing some of these opportunities to life for you! An Operations Manager can help manage the process of developing new strategies, projects, and offers and bring them to life from concept to launch.

3. You are still doing the same things you were doing when you started your business.

Remember when you first started your business and had to wear many hats? You were the cook, hostess, waitress, and busboy (so to speak). Now that your business is growing, are you still doing the same things as you were in the beginning? Are you still updating your own website? Are you still sending out your own broadcasts? Are you still answering all your customer service emails? As your business grows, your role will (and should!) change. 

An Operations Manager can lovingly “slap your wrist” when it comes to doing some of these things, such as, helping you let go of some of the “old” stuff taking up your time which gets in the way of you growing your business.

4. You have a great team but find yourself frustrated by them always ‘bugging’ you.

Feeling frustrated is a very common complaint from business owners. They have a great team of virtual assistants, techie folks, etc., and yet they are constantly frustrated by how much their team needs from them. They feel like someone is continually tapping them on the shoulder with a question or request. The thing is, your team does need someone to manage them. They need someone they can turn to with questions, to get what they need to complete their projects quickly and on time. If there is no Operations Manager on the team, who do they turn to? You, the business owner.  

As a fellow business owner once said: “My VAs were doing a fine job, it was ME who was unhappy managing them.” Most business owners don’t enjoy being managers, and I’m guessing this may be the same for you. An Operations Manager becomes the main point of contact for your team. All questions and requests go to the Operations Manager instead of you.

5. You are stuck at $X revenue and can’t seem to get past that point!

When you find yourself stuck at a certain point in revenue, there is usually one thing getting in the way, YOU! This is often referred to as the quarter-million-dollar speedbump (can be more or less than that, of course). A big part of the solution usually requires you to remove yourself from the day-to-day activities and management of your business.

Start to ask yourself as you go about your day, “do I need to be the person to do X?” (with X being the many things you spend your time on each day)

Chances are many things on your to-do list could be passed along to someone else on your team and an Operations Manager can help with that process by delegating and managing those tasks on your behalf.

In short, once you:

• have hit 6-figures in revenue
• have a clear vision & goals for your next level of growth and
• are ready to step into being the CEO and have someone else run the business for you

…then, you are ready to hire an Operations Manager. 

If you are ready to take things to the next level, apply now.